PRIMATES &
HUMAN EVOLUTION
How folds in your skin
affect your nervous system
The folds in your skin bend the nerves that pass beneath them and weaken the signal transmitted to your brain.
On this page
Your nerves get folded by your skin
Protected and vulnerable nerve locations
Nerves are well protected inside the spinal cord and the skull, but they become vulnerable to folding in several places along their long paths to the brain.
CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM - WIKIPEDIA
© The Emirr
The nerves are shielded in some areas, but they are exposed and bendable at articulations.
Some nerves have to travel through several articulations before they reach your head.
For most articulations, the nerves pass very near the surface of the skin.
When the articulation is flexed, the nerves get folded, along with the skin and blood vessels.
SCIATIC NERVE - WIKIPEDIA
© Henry Gray
The sciatic nerve, in yellow, is folded every time you flex you hip, knee or ankle joints.
With time, permanent folds are formed in the skin that surrounds each articulation.
These folds compress and strangle the skin, along with the nerves beneath it.
When the nerves are permanently squeezed, the signals they transmit are weakened.
As the folds deepen with age, they can totally block the passage of nervous impulses.
Folded nerves and insensitivity
Neurons are like small wires going from tiny sensors in your skin up to your brain.
If their route is contorted, the signal will be affected.
A fold in the skin mechanically bends and crumples the nerves it crosses in a manner similar to folding a wire.
This is what happens to your nerves
every time you flex an articulation.
Transmission may not be affected at first but, as the folds become permanent, the signal is weakened.
FOLD
SIGNAL
Loss of nervous transmission
where the skin is folded.
Main folded nerve locations
Where the nerves are vulnerable
1• Folded nerves in the neck and shoulder area -
The body cut off from the brain
Radiculopathy, also commonly referred to as "pinched nerve", refers to a set of conditions in which one or more nerves are affected and do not work properly (a neuropathy). This can result in pain, weakness, numbness, or difficulty controlling specific muscles.
Source: Wikipedia
The free encyclopedia
Grooming the skin of the neck proves that pinched nerves can be caused by folds in the skin.
The pinched nerves cause many nervous disorders, from insensibility to multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease, but grooming the skin can free them.
The place where nerves are the most vulnerable to folding is the neck and shoulder area.
Several nerves run through your neck.
Some are better shielded from external pressures, but many pass near the surface of the skin.
Brachial plexus - Wikipedia
© Henry Gray
The brachial plexus nerves (in yellow) relay sensations from the chest, shoulder, arm and hand.
They pass very near the surface.
Each nerve travels from your brain to a specific part of your body.
However, when they go through your neck, they are susceptible to being bent, compressed or pinched by the folds in the skin.
With time, some nerves become so crippled that they lose their effectiveness.
When the strength of the signals they transmit is diminished, you slowly lose contact with some body parts or functions.
The vagus nerve (in yellow)
controls the heart, lungs, and digestive tract. It is vulnerable in some areas.
Visible and invisible folds in the neck/shoulder area
The neck/shoulder area is very susceptible to folding because of the weight of the head, the length of the neck and all the movements and rotations it is subjected to.
Every time you turn your head, large visible folds are formed in the skin of your neck.
These folds dig deeply into what is beneath the skin.
Nerves, blood vessels, muscles, ... get compressed and flattened.
Simply turning your head to the side creates many large folds.
What happens if you hold this position often and for long periods?
However, the folds aren't always visible.
When a neck movement or position is frequently used, permanent folds form in the skin and most of those are not visible.
They are feel-able, with your nails and fingertips.
CAN YOU SEE THE FOLDS?
Yet, the skin is very folded.
Simply press your nails on your spine in this area to find out how the skin has inter-weaved itself into the mechanism and is now attached to the bones.
Because the skin of your neck/shoulder region is the center of continuous movement and activity, even while you sleep, many permanent folds are now in place.
They bind the skin to what is beneath it.
Their hold on the nerves, blood vessels and muscles tightens continuously as you age.
These folds can have a very disabling effect on some people.
Symptoms may start with occasional periods of light insensitivity, but may lead to almost complete paralysis, often accompanied by involuntary nervous shaking or gestures.
If you have any kind of nervous disorder or some insensibility, you can't ignore the presence of folds in your neck and shoulder area.
Spinal cord compression caused by cutaneous folds
Spinal cord compression occurs when a vertebra puts some pressure on the nervous tissue.
The usual causes include fractures, tumors, abscesses, ruptures and lesions.
You can add folds in the skin to the list.
Repeated movements involving the neck create very deep folds that tug heavily on the vertebrae they are attached to.
The pressure they exert pulls on the vertebrae and restricts their movements.
This tension finally pushes the bone into the spinal cord, compressing it.
Spinal cord compression affects large parts of the body.
The symptoms start with occasional decreased sensations, but can end up with partial or total paralysis of limbs below the level of compression.
Vertigo caused by a fold in the back of the head
Vertigo is a problem of the inner ear that affects your perception of gravity and your equilibrium.
You become dizzy and you feel as if everything was spinning or swaying around you.
This condition usually comes and goes, but it has a very debilitating effect on the person who suffers from it.
Vertigo is caused by the growth of a horizontal fold that goes all around your head.
The part of this fold that causes the problem is in the back of the head.
The circles indicate where this horizontal fold is strongly attached to the skull. The fold becomes so tight that it pulls on the ears.
The skin of your neck has fastened itself to these bony spikes on each side of the head. When you turn your head, the skin can't follow and it pulls on the whole ear mechanism.
2• Folded nerves at the major member junctions -
Regional loss of sensitivity
Deep and large folds form at the body's main member junctions and at the waist.
When the folds at an articulation cut too profoundly into the nerves beneath them, their grip can stop nervous transmission from reaching entire members.
Folds in the skin around the shoulders, the hips, the waist and all the other smaller joints on your body can bend and entwine the neurons and provoke a gradual loss of perception.
Large folds at the major articulations
may cut off the nervous transmission
to entire sections of the body.
Symptoms may start a slight insensibility in the extremities, but the affected area will grow.
The folds responsible for this situation were caused by a repeated physical activity or position.
The people suffering from this condition will often have to stop doing those actions.
When the sensory contact is lost with the affected member, involuntary movements often occur.
The carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by folds in the hands that can easily be groomed
Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a medical condition due to compression of the median nerve as it travels through the wrist at the carpal tunnel. The main symptoms are pain, numbness, and tingling, in the thumb, index finger, middle finger, and the ring fingers.
Source: Wikipedia
The free encyclopedia
Many people develop sensitive problems in their hands.
These conditions are usually caused by doing repetitive movements or holding cramped positions for extended periods.
I have suffered several times from the carpal tunnel syndrome because I did lots of cycling with no gloves.
I know people who got it because they played too much guitar.
Grooming the inside of your hands will bring back their normal sensitivity, but you will have to stop doing the activity that caused the folding or protect your hands in some way to stop the tingling effect.
3• Local numbness and insensitivity -
Calluses are simply folds in the skin
Calluses are mounds of folded skin and they can easily be removed by grooming the skin, not by scrubbing it with abrasives.
Some parts of your body, sometimes very small, may become gradually less sensitive.
Little stretches of skin harden and lose their sensibility because the tissue has become too folded, mostly at articulations.
The dead areas have unique shapes.
You can find out how folded an area is by passing your nail on it and mapping its sensitivity.
Some areas on your fingers
have lost some sensitivity because the skin is too folded.
Most people treat their hands, feet, elbows and knees incorrectly.
They have a presumptuous and careless attitude towards them and seem to take pride in not taking care of the skin of those areas.
Opening bottles with your bare hands, leaning your forearm for hours while manipulating a computer mouse, carrying heavy objects, ... these actions put a heavy toll on the skin in some places.
If gloves had been worn or if some measures were taken to protect the skin; no damage would have occurred.
The skin in the folded sections may become as hard and insensitive as wood.
Grooming the fold crossings, in the center of these unresponsive areas, will restore the sensitivity of the skin in no time.
Grooming your skin to restore sensitivity
Find where the nerves are folded and unfold them
Grooming can bring back their sensitivity to the parts of your body that don't feel anymore.
The procedure is the same as if you were grooming for pain or aesthetic reasons; using short and long pressure strokes.
However, the strategy is different.
The search for the folded nerves -
• Local or distant blockage
The first step is to determine if the nerves are folded locally or somewhere along their path to the brain.
The size of the insensitive region can help you find that out;
• Small insensitive areas (part of your hand or finger, part of your cheek, ..) should be groomed locally.
• Larger insensitive areas (entire limbs or parts of the body) demand some investigation to find out where the blockage is located.
Small insensitive areas - Calluses and thick skin
• Grooming the skin directly
The skin is usually hard and callused in small insensitive places.
Explore the region with your nail using short pressure strokes.
You will find some mounds, some folds and some depressions in your skin.
Each of these elements has a center; the top of the mound, the deepest part of the fold or depression.
That's where you want to apply long pressure strokes.
You may face some pain in some sections, but that shouldn't stop you.
If you're grooming correctly, you will feel all kinds of sensations emanating from the skin.
Find the places where the sensations are the most faded or diminished and insist on those points.
Plow the skin of the whole area with short pressure strokes to bring back its suppleness.
Be patient and keep on putting pressure on the skin, for a few minutes several times a day, until it returns to normal.
You probably have a good idea of which ones of your activities have caused the calluses.
Find some way to protect the skin of those regions, by wearing or putting something in between to avoid direct contact or by changing your position, to shelter it from the repeated aggressions.
Large insensitive areas -
• Following the nerve's path to the brain
If you find the right spot, you will know it immediately.
When an area is insensitive because the nerves are pinched remotely, you don't feel anything much when you press your nail on it.
Moreover, the sensations that you get won't differ much from one place to the other.
Those are clear indications that you have to do some detective work and inspect the nerves all along their route to the brain.
You first want to locate the place where the nervous transmission is blocked, then groom it.
Study a diagram of the central nervous system (like the one at the top of this page) and figure out what nerves may be involved and their route to the brain.
Press your nail along the path followed by the nerves, but insist on articulations and the neck area.
Your search should include areas left and right of the expected nerve trajectory.
Peck the skin with your nail, move over a bit and repeat, while you try to cover every point of the skin's surface.
As soon as you press your nail into the spot where the nerves are pinched, you will briefly feel sensibility returning to the dull regions.
This flash of sensations should be strong enough to jolt you.
Use this information to pinpoint the blockage and groom it with long pressure strokes.
As you groom the articulations, you will feel the sensitivity returning to the regions beyond it.
You must determine which of your actions have created the folds and, if you can, stop doing them temporarily or change the way you do them.
Be careful, go slowly and test groom
More precautions and care must be taken when grooming the skin to restore sensitivity than in any other situation.
Grooming the affected areas may provoke unknown reactions.
Test-groom the regions for a few days before committing yourself to deeper work or exploration.
Be smart and go gradually.
Groom for short periods, several times a day, until the original sensibility is restored.
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Folds in the skin
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An introduction to folds
The main skin folds
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